


ten storeys underground

by orphan_account



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-10
Updated: 2008-03-10
Packaged: 2017-10-11 16:03:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mohinder needs to keep Molly safe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ten storeys underground

Everything changed after Sylar got the blood. Molly felt it in every movement Matt and Mohinder did around her, in every painful loss of privacy and independance.

There had been some amount of protection before, but now, it was a hundred times worse: every day, Mohinder picked her up from school, and the next morning, Matt was up at the same time as her, driving her to the very entrance of the school building, not leaving her out of his sight until he had to. Never alone, never without people around her, like a wall, protecting her.

"Be safe," Matt said, as always, and hugged her tight, breathing in the scent of her hair. "Please, don't go anywhere deserted and don't leave the safety of other people until Mohinder comes to pick you up. He has your schedule. If anything changes, call immediately, and if there's anything -"

"- Matt," she interrupted him, patience wearing thin. She was young, but she wasn't stupid. "You've said the same thing every day for the past week. I have my cell, I have you and Mohinder both on speed dial, if anything happens, I'm finding my way to the center of the biggest mass of people I can find. I get it."

"Don't be such a smartass," Matt smiled, pulling her close again. "But I'm glad you're aware of the dangers and that you know what to do. Don't panic if something happens. We'll be there as soon as we can. I promise."

"Okay, okay." Molly looked embarrassed as he hugged her for the third time just as a few of her classmates walked past. Matt gave them a once-over, which made her hit his arm. "Hey!" Matt complained.

"They're friends," Molly said with a scowl. "Stop looking at them like they're criminals."

"They might be," Matt grinned, rubbing his arm. "Did I teach you that punch?"

"Mohinder," Molly grinned back. "He's good at punching."

"I feel that." Matt looked at her for a second more, then nodded. "Well, off you go. I'll see you after work at home."

That was one of the smoother incidents.

 

~*~

 

The real trouble came in the form of a school trip. Molly stared at the permission slip which her guardians would have to sign for a few long seconds before she made it vanish in her backpack and tried not to let it show that she was terribly disappointed. She knew already that she wouldn't be able to go. Friends front, left and right from her started talking excitedly about the zoo and the animals, and she sighed and put her head on her arms, pouting.

"What's wrong?" her teacher, Miss Chatham, asked. She was a younger woman with a friendly face and open, understanding smile, but Molly was pretty sure she wouldn't understand, so she didn't say anything. "Molly?"

"It's nothing."

"You don't seem too excited about the zoo. Don't you think it'll be fun?"

"It might," Molly replied into her arms. "But I'm not going."

"Why not?" Miss Chatham frowned. "If it's a money issue, I'm sure there will be no problem at all to -"

"No." Molly shook her head quickly. "No, my dads are overprotective. They won't let me go."

"I'm sure if you explain that we'll be having three other teachers going with us and that all the safety issues will be addressed -"

"You don't understand," Molly snapped, lifting her chin from her arms. "They won't let me, they're not... normal safety standards aren't enough."

"Oh. If you want, I could have a word -"

"No. It's fine. I just won't go."

"Well, but you should still give it a try. Maybe they'll feel better if you tell them the whole class is going and that they can talk to me beforehand?"

"I'll ask," Molly gave in, rolling her eyes. She already knew it wouldn't matter anyway.

 

~*~

 

"What's with the face, little one?" Mohinder asked that evening, serving her plate, potatoes and carrots and half a steak as he put his own on the other side of the table. A glance to the clock showed that Matt was due back.

Molly'd been doing homework at the dinner table until a few minutes ago, but now she put it away and looked up at him. "Nothing," she said. "I'm just not that hungry." The food smelled very good, as always when Mohinder cooked, but she just couldn't call on the appetite.

"You haven't been eating a lot lately," Mohinder noted. "C'mon, sit down. What's bothering you?"

Molly sighed, then she shrugged. "It's no wonder, really, is it? I'm not doing anything to burn calories, I'm just sitting around in here all day. Why should I be hungry?"

"Molly..."

"Well, it's true. I'm not allowed to go out and play, I'm not allowed to visit friends, I'm not even allowed to go on a school trip because it's too dangerous and Sylar's out there and he might be after me!" Molly glared. "I'm just not hungry."

"Please, sit down," Mohinder said, raising his eyebrows. He obviously didn't like it when she got snappy, and Molly knew that, but she couldn't help it. She just felt so caged in this stupid apartment, and she wanted to get out, have some fun, maybe go join a dance club like her best friend Cassie had, instead of sitting on her ass all day, watching TV. She still sat down, because she didn't want to make Mohinder really mad. He'd never said a loud word to her, but she'd made him mad once or twice before, and he got very silent and went into his room and worked until he was exhausted afterwards, and she hated when he wasn't speaking with her.

"Look." Mohinder swallowed, tried again. "Look, Molly, I know the situation you're in right now is not the best - but you have to understand that we need you safe. We need you where we can see you and make sure you're fine because we care about you very, very much and if anything happened to you -"

"- you mean if Sylar found me."

"Yes." Mohinder gave her a sharp look. "If Sylar found you, because he knows you can be used as leverage against Matt or myself - and if he tried to hurt you, or if he succeeded in hurting you. I think I can speak for both of us if I say that we wouldn't be able to forgive ourselves and it would be very, very hard to live on without you, now that we know what we have with you here."

"But that doesn't mean I can't get to live and have experiences like everyone else!" Molly pointed out. "You can't keep me locked up in here forever, you just can't. And I know he's out there, but I can protect myself and I know how to tell where he is, so if I just think about him and he's nearby, I can get away, I swear!"

Mohinder opened his mouth to reply when the keys turned in the door and Matt entered, freshly showered and out of uniform in jeans and a shirt, smiling. His smile vanished as he noted the thick atmosphere in the room. "What's going on?" he asked. "Molly..." he went over and kissed her cheek, then gave Mohinder a small peck on the mouth in greeting. "What's up with you two. Dinner's on your plates and you're not eating yet? Waiting for me?"

"We were having a discussion," Mohinder sighed.

"What kind?" Matt frowned, went over to the stove to get himself a plate of the food. "By the way, this smells great. How do you manage to make stuff like that without burning the whole house down?"

"Talent," Mohinder smiled. "And the discussion is about the fact that Molly wants to... pursue certain activies, I think? And there was mention of a school trip."

Molly nodded. "I just think it's not really fair that I have to stay in here just because Sylar's on the loose -"

"Wait, wait, wait." Matt frowned. "What kind of activities? What school trip?"

Mohinder gave him a look. "It was more of a theoretical discussion until now."

"Cassie's joined a dance club at school, they have this cool training program where you can learn all the newest moves and it's okay for kids of all ages, and there's a school trip to the zoo with my class in a week which I have a permission slip for that needs to be signed and Miss Chatham said I should just pressure you into submission."

"I'm sure your teacher didn't word it quite like that," Mohinder smiled.

"Well, no," Molly admitted. "But she was very insistent that I try and persuade you to let me go along. Even said she'd talk to you if you needed extra assurance that it was a smooth trip. And I told Mohinder already," she looked at Matt, "that I can use my power to see if anyone dangerous is close to me and keep myself safe, I swear!"

"Except if you forget to pay attention for an hour or two," Mohinder corrected gently. "We can't allow that to happen."

"But -" Molly looked to Matt. "It's not fair! I won't forget, I swear, I'll be careful! And anyway, he's not after me, he's in - he's in Texas right now, he won't be even here when I go."

Matt frowned. "I see your point," he concluded, only to catch a hard glare from Mohinder.

"We have no idea what kinds of powers he has," Mohinder reminded them. "We know a few, but who knows how many innocent people with special abilities he has killed already? One of them might be teleportation. One of them might be hurting people from far away. Anything's possible, and as long as he is out there, Molly, I'm afraid I can't allow you to be in more danger than you already are going to school every day."

"But Mohinder, I -"

"I'm sorry."

"But -"

"No, all right? I can't let you be in that much danger, I can't."

"Matt!" Molly jumped off her seat, staring at her other dad. "Fucking say something!"

"Molly, don't swear," Mohinder chastisted.

"Matt!"

Matt looked at them both helplessly. "I can't. You guys, this is ridiculous, stop glaring at me like that, I'm not going to choose sides here. I'm not, I'm sorry. I'm keeping out of this."

"Not picking a side is picking his side," Molly hissed and threw her fork at him before she stormed off into her room.

"I didn't say that!" Matt called after her.

She threw her pillow against the wall and punched it, once it had landed on the floor, worked-up and furious. It wasn't fair, it just wasn't. Why couldn't she just be normal? Why hadn't her parents been normal, they would still be alive and she wouldn't have to live with Matt and Mohinder, who was always so damn logical and had a comeback ready for every one of her arguments and it just wasn't fair. She just wanted to do stuff.

She took a few deep gulps of breath and tried to think about it rationally. There was nothing she could do, basically. They were her guardians, and they had the right to decide for her and there was nothing, nothing at all that would make them change their minds. She leaned against the door, still breathing heavily from the exertion of emotions and fury and disappointment.

They were talking, in the kitchen, their voices loud enough for her to catch that they were arguing even though she couldn't hear the actual words. Slowly, she pushed the door open a slit and their voices filtered in.

"- need to be able to trust that you're going to back me up here and not just keep out of the affair just so you can keep playing good daddy!"

"Mohinder, calm down." Matt was off his seat and standing very close to Mohinder, who was leaning with his back against the kitchen counters, hands gripping the top so hard that his knuckles were white. "I'm not trying to keep her affection while you have to play evil and make her mad, I swear."

"Yeah?" Mohinder glared. "Because it sure looked that way to me."

"It's not a competition!"

"No. But she doesn't understand that, does she. A few more acts like this and she'll start going to you to ask for things and I know you, you won't be able to say no to her and then she - fuck, she might get hurt or even - and what'll we do then?"

"This is really insulting, you know," Matt said, sounding a little strained himself now. "You keep talking like you expect me to be less of a parent than you are. Which is so not fucking true, Mohinder. I'm her father just as you are, so stop making up roles we have to take. We've been doing just fine till now, why does it matter that nobody's been assigned a... a field or something yet? This is not science, you know. This is parenting, and there's no hundred percent getting it right."

"I'm not worried about - I'm just worried about her."

"I know. And that makes you the good cop, no matter what she thinks. Okay?"

Mohinder dropped his shoulders, tension seeping out. "Oh, shit, this is too much for me sometimes. I hate saying no to her. I wish we could catch Sylar finally and someone would kill him or something so that he's dead and we don't have to worry about him anymore."

Matt moved closer, vanishing the last inch of space between them and put his arms around Mohinder's neck, pulling him down into a kiss. "It'll all work out, soon. I promise. Peter is working on it, I'm helping him, and Nathan's - no, no, okay, you shouldn't hear about this. C'mere, let's just - okay, yes, yeah, that's good."

Mohinder chuckled and they kept nuzzling and necking and Molly closed the door on them, embarrassed and walked back to her bed, lying down on it with a sigh. Part of her felt guilty for making them fight - she hadn't meant to, really, she just wanted out of here so badly. Another part of her wasn't bothered and still wanted to go through with it. She took out the permission slip and read through it a few times, held it up against the light and considered if this was worth it.

Then she smiled. She'd find a way to have her freedom yet. She was sure of it.

~*~

~~ _written in March 2008_


End file.
